Oil leak

[glen poole]

Hi I've noticed an oil smell when I'm at a standstill and I could do with a little advice on what I've found. I noticed that oil has dripped onto the exhaust manifold causing the smell, the oil is coming from the rocker cover where the spark plugs sit and two of the chambers have quite a bit of oil in them. Does anybody know if I need to replace just the gasket or could it be more to it? The car is a1.8t on a 52 plate many thanks Glen.

[Crasher]

Fit a new gasket and you will find the inside of the head covered in sludge.

[glen poole]

That's exactly what I was thinking Sludge

[Crasher]

Those engines are notorious for it.

[glen poole]

About 2 years ago i had the red STOP NOW! come on so i pulled over & got the car piggy backed to the dealers, sludge blocking the strainer, had a new strainer & sump cleaned out & an oil change. The car has been fine since then with regular oil changes around every 5000 miles with oil from the dealer. When i change the gasket at the weekend, bought one today from vw, i'll clean all the sludge out. Would it also be wise to have a look at the breather system? many thanks.

[Toonmania]

Hi Glen,
Good to see you still around, 2 years seems a very short time if the dealer did the job properly first time around, i would either question that or the oil they are using if sludge is re-occurring after such a short space of time

[glen poole]

Hi how you doing? Are you saying that when the car went in with a blocked strainer the dealers should have done more work to resolve the sludge issue? The work was carried out under their diagnosis & recommendations. Sorry if I sound a little dim as I'm no mechanic. Many thanks.

[Toonmania]

no I'm just thinking that if the engine was cleaned out properly like i imagine it should be to sort the problem properly or whether they have used the wrong oil on your oil changes. I just think that if it's only 2 years since you've had it done and it's had oil changes every 2 years it seems to have happened again very quickly and makes me think if they did the job right in the first place :confused:

[Crasher]

You can't clean the engine out properly, all it is possible to do is paint the insides of the cam cover and sump with paint stripper to remove the sludge as this leaves the surface shiny and less likely to re-sludge, the dealers seem to just give them a quick wash out and new strainer. I often see them sludge up again within two years, the key is 5K oil changes using LL3 oil and the special large oil filter PLUS allowing the turbo time to slow down and cool down after a fast run such as motorway work, what we call "spool and cool".

Some become more blocked than others, we worked out that this sump had been refitted with large quantities of windscreen sealant which then fell into the sump.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/Crasher1964/18Toilpickup.jpg

[glen poole]

Hi the oil i've been using is from the dealers is Quantum Platinum 5w-40 fully synthetic & i did both oil changes 5000 miles apart since a new strainer & sump cleaned. When i did the last oil change i shined a tourch into the sump & it all looked shiney. Could you tell me Crasher if it would be worth cleaning any other parts as well as the inside of the cam cover? Someone has mentioned the breather system might need a clean through, many thanks.

[Crasher]

The breather system is partly in the cam cover and the rest is on a breather block bolted to the side of the crank case and this does not tend to get blocked as much as the cam cover becomes covered in sludge and the sump too.

[glen poole]

Hi just an update, carried out the work on saturday, took about 2 hours & 2 cups of tea, pretty easy really, inside the rocker cover weren't that dirty, a quick clean & it was shinney in no time. The gasket was rock hard & had fallen apart in 3 places, checked breather hoses & all were clean, put all back together & run her up, no problems. Decided to check the oil level & quess what? upon pulling the dipstick out the guide sleeve housing or whatever it's called snapped right at the bottom. Bought one today from the dealers for £4.10, not too bad & looks simple enough to fit, just got to work out how to get the remains of the broken one off without dropping bits into the sump. Many thanks, Glen.